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domingo, 18 de enero de 2015

You’ve
read “The Fall of the House of Usher” and have never forgotten those opening
lines: “During
the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when
the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on
horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country…” Right now, alone on
this dreary January day, you sit alone in front of the fire shivering as you
recall the unfolding of that sad tale. Why is it that tales such as this haunt
us to the very marrow, you ask yourself. Uneasy and not knowing what to do with
yourself, you open your computer and read information about an immersive
theater performance at the Enoch Pratt House, 201 West Monument Street, Mount
Vernon, Maryland:

“The theatrical
performance, called Mesmeric Revelations!
Of Edgar Allan Poe, will channel the spirit and characters of one of
Baltimore’s most treasured writers. Performances will take place Thursday to
Saturday March 26 to early May 2015 at 8pm.”

What
in the Lord’s name is immersive theater, you wonder, gazing out the window at
the newly fallen snow before reading on: “Neither an historical reenactment nor a
reproduction of Poe’s stories, Mesmeric Revelations! of Edgar Allan Poe
is a new, interpretive artwork created by a collective of Baltimore performers
and artists assembled by 2014 Rubys grantee Glenn Ricci. The group will invite
audiences into a Poe-inspired world that can be freely explored as stories
unfold and secrets are revealed. Throughout the show, audience members will
share moments directly with the characters, interact with the sets, explore the
environment, choose which stories to follow, and come away with a unique
experience to discuss with others. The six main characters are pulled from
Poe’s life and fiction and will vacillate at will between the two.”

The whole
of Pratt House will unfold with six characters representing both real-life and
fictional situations in Poe’s life and on the first floor of the house there
will be representations of mesmerization (an exotic practice that arose in the
1840’s), also a ballroom scene (The Red Death?) and a séance.

Tense,
excited and curious all at the same time you go back to your seat in front of
the fire and read the last lines of “The Fall of the house of Usher.”

“From that
chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was still abroad in
all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot
along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual
could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The
radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon which now shone
vividly through that once barely-discernible fissure of which I have before
spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zig-zag direction, to
the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened --there came a fierce
breath of the whirlwind --the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my
sight --my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder --there was a
long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters --and the
deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments
of the "HOUSE OF USHER."